


The Childchewer

by beef_wonder3



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Giants, M/M, case!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-08
Updated: 2010-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:09:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25815583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beef_wonder3/pseuds/beef_wonder3
Summary: Children are going missing. And what do magic beans have to do with it?
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Kudos: 5





	The Childchewer

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for lj user yellowhorde with the prompt; "I’d like to see a SPN adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk but keep it real world, not fairy tale."
> 
> The title comes from the Roald Dahl book, The BFG.

The human race has many stories; stories and tales and recounts of legends past.  
  
These stories are important, they are teachers and entertainers. These stories educate each generation about the past, the imagination. Teach adventure and morality, history and religion.  
  
Some stories are fiction, made up for entertainment and perpetuated in the most fantastical of minds. Others are true, or based on a truth, often altered with each retelling.  
  
And some stories are warnings; warnings of evil that lurks in the shadows of our world. These stories are the most well known, the most changed, until they reach a point so far distanced from their true meanings.  
  
However, even if the significance of these ancient tales has blown away like ageing dust, it does not mean the danger they warn of is any less relevant in each new era. As such, the Winchester brothers and their Angelic ally were to discover in a usually docile town in Pennsylvania...  
  
-  
  
It had started with a missing child.  
  
A girl, 11 years old, innocently pretty in the photo proffered by her tearful parents.  
  
Now, one missing child, while sad, was not usually enough to raise an alarm to seasoned hunters.  
  
However, when two more children, a 12 year old girl and an 11 year old boy, also disappeared in similar circumstances, (at night, from their beds, in a securely locked family home, with the only disturbances being broken fences and felled trees outside the children’s windows), 2 and 3 days later, respectively, _that_ was a supernatural warning sign.  
  
-  
  
“I’m sorry Agents,” the teary woman, Bridget Peterson, said, “It’s just a very emotional time for us.”  
  
“That’s completely understandable.” Dean heard Sam soothe in his most careful ‘grieving-family-voice’. Dean made sure his expression was sympathetic as he quickly catalogued what he could see of the house.  
  
“Is it possible,” Dean asked, taking Sam’s lead on the gentle approach, “we could see your daughter’s room?”  
  
The missing girl’s father, Mark, Dean thought his name was, nodded and led them all up the stairs to a plain white painted door that proudly proclaimed it to be ‘Maggie’s Room’ with large coloured letters.  
  
As Dean had little to no experience with pre-teen girls, he assumed that the bedroom was of average for a girl of that age, with stuffed animals, a messy bookcase and a couple of posters of that gay vampire movie.  
  
The Petersons were talking to Sam again; Maggie was a normal girl, the police were wrong, she’d never run away. Dean snorted softly to himself as he tugged at his uncomfortable collar and tie. In his experience, cops were usually wrong.  
  
A flutter of movement caught in Dean’s peripheral vision and he turned to see a small set of cow-brown eyes peeking from behind a door displaying, much like his sisters, that it was ‘Aiden’s Room’.  
  
Dean caught Sam’s eye over the Peterson’s heads and inclined his head towards the hallway, indicating where he was going. He slipped out the missing girl’s room, the cow-brown eyes blinking away.  
  
Sometimes getting information out of adults was like pulling teeth, especially emotional adults. But kids; Dean was good with kids, kids Dean could deal with. Dean crouched in the hallway, just to the side of the boy’s door.  
  
“It’s Aiden, isn’t it?” He coaxed, the little boy edged to the half open door again, peeking out to stare at Dean. “I’m Agent Gaines.”  
  
“Are you gonna find Maggie?” a little voice asked.  
  
“I’m gonna try.” Dean responded truthfully.  
  
Hoping to get a little more information, Dean tried his luck by asking, “So, did you know anyone who would want to take your sister away?” The boy shook his head after a small hesitation. “So you didn’t see anything strange or weird before Maggie went missing?” Dean pressed softly, trying not to scare the boy away. Aiden’s hesitation was longer this time. The kid knew of something, Dean was sure of it. He leaned forward slightly, encouragingly, “Its okay Aiden, I promise whatever you tell me won’t get Maggie into trouble.” The boy looked dubious but still opened his mouth to speak, only to widen his eyes and snap his mouth shut again as the boys parents came out of their daughter’s room.  
  
Aiden darted back inside his room and slammed the door closed, leaving Dean to sigh in frustration at the white painted wood. Dean stood, turning to the other adults. Sam raised an eyebrow in question but Dean shook his head in direction of the parents.  
  
-  
  
“That kid totally knew something.” Dean informed his brother once they were back in the car.  
  
“Do you think he’ll spill?” Sam asked.  
  
“Dunno, hard to say.” Dean replied, turning the Impala into the motel parking lot, “Maybe.”  
  
Walking into their motel room, Dean simultaneously reached for his gun and tried not to have a heart attack. Thankfully Dean’s heart calmed somewhat when the shadowed figure standing at the window turned, filtered sunlight revealing Castiel.  
  
“Jesus, Cas!” Dean exclaimed, as he moved into the room fully. “Lurk much?”  
  
Castiel frowned at Dean’s odd phrasing,“I beg your pardon?”  
  
Shaking his head, Dean just muttered, “Never mind.”  
  
“Hey Cas,” Greeted Sam, closing the door behind him, “What brings you here?”  
  
“I was... in the area.” Castiel answered, stumbling slightly as his eyes unsubtly darted between the floor and Dean.  
  
“Yeah, okay.” Sam said in a seemingly even tone, although Dean knew Sam better that he knew himself, and he could hear the smirk in his tone. Punk.  
  
Dean turned and fussed with his duffle, ignoring the way his ears heated up, because contrary to what some people (Sam) had implied, Dean was, in fact, not an 8th grade girl. Dean was in no way feeling the slightest bit giddy because his... Angel had come by just to see him.  
  
Sam had joyfully been mocking Dean’s embarrassment from the moment he accidentally walked in on Dean kissing Cas. And seriously, if Sam utters the word ‘cute’ and ‘boyfriends’ ever, _ever_ again, someone was going to get hurt. And it would probably be Sam.  
  
Dean cleared his throat to break the awkward silence. Dean saw Sam open his mouth to speak again but was cut off by his cell phone. A few exchanged words with the caller and Sam hung up. He turned to Dean and said,  
“You were right. The kid must’ve cracked; the Peterson’s want to speak to us.” Nodding and resisting the urge to add that he was always right, Dean gathered his things together again, looking over at Castiel he asked,  
“You wanna tag along? We’ve got missing kids.”  
  
Castiel considered for a moment before shaking his head,“I will help you find the children. But I will wait here while you gather your research.”  
  
-  
  
The Peterson’s house was much like it was before, except this time there was a small gathering of adults and children in the living room.  
  
“What was it that you needed to tell us?” Sam inquired from the gathering for the two of them.  
  
“That Aiden can’t keep his fat mouth shut!” snapped a stubborn looking girl in a spongebob t-shirt. She was quickly reprimanded by a woman Dean supposed was her mother.  
  
“Alice! Behave, please.”  
  
The girl, Alice apparently, cowed but still muttered a swift and defiant “Well, it’s true.”  
  
Dean ignored the girl and turned his attention to Aiden. The boy had clearly been crying, his bottom lip still quivering. Assuming his gentle approach had succeeded, Dean tried the tactic again.  
  
“Aiden,” Dean asked softly, “Do you know why Maggie is missing?” The boy immediately burst into tears again, babbling faster than a pixie on speed, something Dean has actually had the privilege to see but is also completely irrelevant.  
  
Luckily Dean had learned to decipher babbling sobs when it had been Sam’s main form of communication,  
  
“We. Didn’t. Know. That. He. Would. Take. Them.” Aiden sobbed out through hitching breaths.  
  
“Who is ‘he’?” Sam asked, also gently, following Dean’s lead and crouching to the boy’s eyelevel.  
  
“The old man with the magic seeds!” the distraught boy wailed, turning and burying his face in his mothers embrace.  
  
Dean exchanged a glance with Sam before addressing the other children, all of which were in the same age group as Maggie and her missing friends.  
  
“Magic seeds?”  
  
A few furtive looks between the children seemed to declare Alice their spokesperson.  
  
“We met an old man last week and he sold us some magic seeds. He said they would grow into a tree-house if we planted them in the woods.”  
  
“What did you pay him with?” Sam asked, all business as if magic seeds were the norm and, you know, real.  
  
“$2.65 and half a pack of gum.” Alice answered proudly.  
  
Alice’s mother took the chance to scold her daughter again,  
“Alice, you know better than to accept things from strangers. As should you all.” She said, talking to the several other children. Most of them hung their heads in acknowledgment of their mistake but Alice stood her ground, all pigtails and insolence,  
  
“It’s not like it was candy! He was a tiny, old man!”  
  
Brat, Dean thought idly watching the exchange. That girl was gonna be real trouble when she eventually hit her teens.  
  
“What did you do with the seeds?” asked Sam.  
  
“We planted ‘em.” Piped in Aiden, tears subsided. “We wanted a tree-house.”  
  
“Where did you plant them?”  
  
“Is that important?” Mark Peterson asked, laying a hand on his son’s shoulder.  
  
“It could be.” Sam deflected, “We’d like to check out the place anyway.”  
  
“We planted them where we always go camping, Dad.” Aiden supplied. Both Sam and Dean looked at the Peterson’s expectantly. A look of comprehension dawned on Mark’s face and he informed the brothers,  
  
“I have a map of the area if you’d like it.” The man moved from his wife’s side to the desk against the wall. He pulled out a brochure extolling the wonders of the camping grounds and a map inside, handing it to Dean, who tucked it to the inside pocket of his jacket.  
  
Nodding to the group of parents, Sam and Dean went to leave when Alice spoke again, a lot less confident than she had been.  
  
“Will we... Will we get taken as well? Like Maggie and Anne and Billy?”  
  
Alice’s mother gasped and clutched her daughter close, while the woman Dean recognised as the missing boy’s, Billy’s, mother started to cry. Dean looked the little girl in the eye and promised her,  
  
“We’re going to do everything we can to find your friends and keep you all safe.”  
  
With one final nod to the girl’s mother, the hunters headed out the front door.  
  
-  
  
“What are we looking for again?” Dean whined, swatting a stray branch out of his face.  
  
“A clearing surrounded by rocky hills, according to the Peterson’s map.” Sam replied eyes glued between both the map and the compass he’d dug out from somewhere. “We should see it soon.”  
  
Dean harrumphed and hoisted his pack higher on his shoulder. He figured the three of them made a pretty odd site, picking their way through the woods. Both Sam and Dean had significant amounts of survivalist training, thanks to Dad, but Castiel couldn’t help look severely out of place in his regular suit and trench coat ensemble.  
  
Bushes and thick bramble tugged at the legs of Dean’s jeans as he waded through the foliage behind his brother. Abruptly the area cleared into a wide open space, bordered by trees.  
  
“Whoa.” Dean heard Sam say.  
  
“What?” He asked, moving past Sam, only to echo his exclamation. One of the borders of the clearing was supposed to be a rocky hill, apparently perfect for hiking. Except now it was completely engulfed by long, thick, sturdy looking vines.  
  
Castiel had moved closer to the vines, inspecting them before he announced,“These stalks are not native to this area.”  
  
“So...” Dean drew out, “High ho?” Sam rolled his eyes at him but approached the wall of vines anyway. Dean noticed clumps of growths growing randomly on the wall. Curious, he examined them closer to see what they were.  
  
“Dude,” he asked the others, “I’m no farmer but are those beans?”  
  
Dean felt Sam peering at the beans over Dean’s shoulder, his voice incredulous when he responded, “I think they are. I didn’t know beans grew wild, let alone in this area.”  
  
“They shouldn’t.” Castiel answered Sam. Taking the first leap, Dean took hold of a handful of the apparent bean stalks, and stepped up onto them. Thankfully, they seemed to be strong enough to hold his weight, the wall stretching up in a lattice like a ladder. Both Sam and Castiel followed suit.  
  
Dean looked up and could see where the slope of stalks ended, but the way they had grown ensured that the journey would be more of a crawling climb than a hike to reach the top. Dean kept his pace steady as he climbed, if there was something up there, he’d be useless if he had worn himself out climbing.  
  
Minutes full of grunting, mostly Dean, and sweating, mostly Sam, the three men, (or more accurately 2 men and Angel), reached the top and cautiously peered over the ledge. The top of the vine/stalk wall evened out into what was supposed to be another clearing but instead was wall to wall of the same vine-like stalks with beans on them, creating a grotto full of green and shadows.  
  
Climbing into the grotto, Dean noticed that there was no ceiling of stalks but the walls grew up so high, the ground was still completely shadowed despite the afternoon sun.  
  
“What is this place for?” Sam wondered aloud as they trudged over the murky floor.  
  
“Whatever it is,” Dean said in a low voice, “It’s not natural.” On instinct, both Sam and Dean drew and cocked their guns.  
  
It was quiet, far too quiet for an area like this. Whatever this was here for, it was bad enough that no birds, no animals, not even any insects would settle there.  
  
“What are you three doing here?” a reedy voice growled from behind them. Dean and Sam swung around to aim at the new arrival. The speaker was just as he was described, a small, old man, with a tweed jacket and a cane to complete the ‘I’m so old and harmless’ look.  
  
The sense of the supernatural Dean had been honing for most of his life was screaming in the back of his mind that this old man was not what he appeared to be. So Dean, in his certainty, demanded, “We’re here for the children you’ve kidnapped.”  
  
The old man let out a raspy laugh, moving towards them slightly.  
  
“Is that so?” he said, sounding a lot more dangerous. Dean felt Castiel, standing at his side, tense all over and mutter Dean’s name, trying to get his attention.  
  
“Dean.” Castiel hissed, his eyes glued to the old man.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Do not anger him.” Castiel warned.  
  
“That’s kinda the entire point of witty banter, Cas.” Dean hissed back. To the old man he added, “Yes, so. If you could tell us where they were, that’d be awesome.”  
  
Without warning, a shrill cry of, “HELP US!” came from somewhere behind the hunters and the old man used the distraction to rush at them. Reacting to the attack, Dean pulled his trigger, shooting the old man in the chest.  
  
The old man stopped, his face an expression of pure rage and then he started to _grow_. Growing to Dean’s height, then Sam’s height, _then_ surpassing them both, looking like he wasn’t going to stop growing higher and wider; transitioning into a giant man. Then its skin started to change, becoming darker and rougher, resembling rock rather than flesh.  
  
Now over 10 feet tall and nearly as wide, the giant let out a ground shuddering roar and charged towards the three of them. They tried to scatter but the giant’s arm swung out, flinging Castiel into one of the walls. Dean saw red.  
  
He shoved Sam out of the path of the giant’s next swing and emptied the rest of his ammo into its belly area. That only seemed to piss it off more; letting out another roar and it raised its arm again as if to bring it down on Dean. Dean heard Castiel cry out, “NO!” Seconds before he collided with Dean’s body, careening them over to where Sam was sprawled.  
  
Laying a hand on both of them, Castiel ignored the cry from Sam, “No wait, the children!” and blinked the three of them out of the giant’s grotto and back into the Impala.  
  
Wrenching himself around in the passenger seat to glare at Castiel sitting in the back seat.  
  
“What did you do that for!?” Sam demanded to know, “The kids are alive. We could’ve rescued them.”  
  
“Not before the giant had killed us.” Castiel argued.  
  
“So it _was_ a giant then?” Dean asked in a voice a lot calmer than he felt.  
  
“Yes.” Was Castiel’s only response. There was silence in the car as the adrenaline rush began to crash. They all jumped, startled, at the shrill and surprising sound of Sam’s cell going off again. Sam fumbled it out of his pocket, pressing it to an ear with a shaky hand, conducting a conversation Dean could only hear half of.  
  
“Hello. Yes, it is. What!? No, thank you. Yes, okay. Thank you for letting us know.” Sam hung up, slumping down in his seat. He looked over at Dean with a serious bitch face on full force, “Alice is missing. Her mother hasn’t seen her for several hours now.”  
  
“Fuck.” Dean swore, hitting his palm against the steering wheel. It was extremely unlikely that a girl that had been as scared of being taken as Alice had would go wandering for hours without her parents. He took a deep breathe, turned in his seat to look and Castiel and asked the Angel, “So Cas, what do you know about giants.”  
  
-  
  
“Okay, so let me get this straight.” Sam said, pacing the length of the room. “Giants are real; huge monsters of the Roald Dahl kind.”  
  
“This one isn’t very friendly.” Dean pointed out from his position on the edge of his bed.  
  
“Yes, giants are real.” Castiel explained. “But these days they are extremely rare. They were born from the hearts of mountains. Created eons ago by magic so powerful, it split the Continents apart. The giants were beasts created to be controlled, to do labor, but once their masters were gone, there was nothing keeping them tamed and their intelligence and their hunger took over. They are only somewhat magical; the extent of that power is what we saw with the one we met, to masquerade as a human for short periods of time.”  
  
“If they’re so big most of the time, and so dangerous, how come we only knew of them in fairytales?” Sam asked, having ceased his pacing.  
  
“Because,” Castiel answered, “They are almost extinct now, having been created so long ago.” He paused a moment before adding, “Even before my time.” Dean looked at him in surprise,  
  
“Before you? I thought you were as old as dirt.”  
  
Castiel shifted awkwardly, “Actually, I am relatively young, compared to some of my brothers.” Clearing his throat, Castiel continued his explanation; “Giants were common in ancient times, which is why they were featured in human folklore, but the reasons their masters weren’t around to control them was because they were hunted and exterminated, to stop their magic continuing to hurt their victims, often the more defenceless and common people. Once they were gone, their hunters killed as many giants as they could, to protect the children from being taken.”  
  
“And now we have a giant problem too,” Dean concluded, “because ye old hunters missed a few.”  
  
“It would appear so, yes.” Said Castiel.  
  
“How did a giant get to America anyway, aren’t they more suited to harassing small European villages? And why is it just showing itself now, is what I wanna know.” Dean said.  
  
“Its probable arrived with European immigrants.” Sam responded, “Just like all other non-native supernatural creatures. Banshees, kappas, even the first few vampires.”  
  
“Yes,” Castiel agreed, “As for why it has come out of hibernation now, the Apocalypse has probably drawn it out. The Earth is in turmoil and as humans get weaker, the supernatural gets stronger.”  
  
“Well that’s just great then.” Dean groused. He took another deep breathe and asked the most important question of all, “How do you kill it?”  
  
Castiel considered his question for a moment, “How do you kill a mountain?”. There was a pause as they contemplated a plan before Dean snapped his fingers,  
  
“I think I have an idea.”  
  
-  
  
“Dean, are you sure this’ll work?” Sam asked as he carefully put on the backpack he needed.  
  
“Of course it will, Sammy.” Dean assured him, loading his gun. Sam looked at him for a long moment before nodding and started into the woods.  
  
“You’re nervous.” Castiel stated.  
  
“Well, yeah.” Dean admitted, “It’s kind of a dumb plan.”  
  
“I have faith we will succeed.” Castiel said. Dean smiled at him, laying a hand on Castiel’s upper arm.  
  
“Let’s just hope jumbo hasn’t chowed down on his baby-back ribs yet. “  
  
“The giant will not devour the children until he has a full meal.”  
  
“Dare I ask what a full meal is?”  
  
“Approximately 6 more children.” Castiel finished in a bland tone.  
  
“Just make it quick okay? I can only run for so long.” Castiel nodded and Dean squeezed his arm lightly. The moment was broken by Sam calling out to them,  
  
“Are we gonna kill a giant or are you two going to make out some more?”  
  
Dean responded with his middle finger.  
  
-  
  
“Hey ugly!” Dean called out at the top of his voice, “C’mon Hagrid. I haven’t got all night!” Dean heard the roar before he caught sight of the moving mountain. Once it was in range, Dean fired a couple of shots at it, just to make sure he really pissed it off, and took off running.  
  
Thankfully the giant really wanted to kill Dean, maybe even eat him, and came after him. Dean could hear it thundering behind him as he barrelled through the woods in what he hoped was a wide circle.  
  
Dean wasn’t lying when he told Cas it was a dumb plan. But it was a dumb plan that might just work. Dean was the distraction, Cas found the kids and Sam set up the trap. Simple.  
  
Dean panted for air as he ran full speed, looping back towards the grotto of bean stalks. Hopefully that was enough time for Sam to scurry the kids away from there. The giant hot on his heels, Dean raced up the wall of bean stalks, into the grotto where Cas was waiting for him.  
  
Momentum still forcing him, Dean only stopped when he smacked into Castiel, thanks to Cas’ iron grip as he wrapped his arms around Dean’s body. They held for one second, two, and then the giant was over the wall, filling up the grotto. The next heartbeat, Dean and Castiel were standing next to Sam and the Impala, Dean shouting,  
  
“NOW!” and Sam pressed the call button on his phone. The three men watched along with 4 little dirt and tear streaked faces pressed against inside of the backseat window, as an enormous fireball erupted into the sky.  
  
The several cellphone-detonated explosives Sam had arranged in the giants grotto while Castiel had found the children, had exploded as expected, wiping out at least 10 acres of land. Being at Ground Zero, the giant couldn’t have escaped. Castiel confirmed it a minuet later when he told them,  
  
“It’s over. The giant is destroyed.” Which, in Dean’s opinion, was a success.  
  
-  
  
Dean flopped onto his bed in utter exhaustion.  
  
“I am never moving again.” He announced tiredly. Although, only Castiel heard him as Sam was shut up in the bathroom.  
  
“That would be impractical.” Castiel remarked, sitting on the end of the bed next to Dean.  
  
“Whatever.” Dean said mildly, “I’m taking a break. We deserve it.”  
  
Castiel frowned at him, “There is still an Apocalypse to deal with, Dean.”  
  
Dean sighed and sat up, looking at the Angel earnestly,  
“I know Cas. But, we won this one. The kids were saved and are back home in one piece and the bad guy is dead. It’s still a victory. And it’s been a while since we’ve had one of those.”  
  
Castiel quirked a smile at him, “I suppose you are right.”  
  
“I’m always right.” Dean said a little smugly, not resisting this time. Then Dean darted forward, stealing a kiss from Castiel just as the bathroom door opened.  
  
Looking over at his brother, Dean remarked, “What are you all dressed up for?”  
  
“Oh, you know.” Sam said dismissively, “I thought I’d check out the bar a few blocks down. Have a celebratory drink or two.”  
  
“Okay.” Dean said slowly, eyebrows knitting together.  
  
Sam rolled his eyes as if Dean was slower than a wet week, emphasising his words, “You know, hang out at the bar, enjoying some _alone time_. Avoiding anything I don’t want to know, see or hear.”  
  
“ _Oh_ ,” Dean said as the light bulb flicked on. “Okay then, have fun!”  
  
Sam rolled his eyes again, more amused this time.  
  
“I’ll be back in 3 hours.” He told Dean pointedly before flouncing out the door. Well, damn, his little brother was a lot more awesome than Dean gave him credit for.  
  
Castiel turned to Dean in confusion, “Why aren’t you joining Sam at the bar? I thought consuming alcoholic drinks in celebration were customary.”  
  
Dean grinned at the oblivious Angel, telling him, “I have something better to do.”  
  
“Something bet-” Castiel’s question was cut off prematurely by Dean’s mouth against his.  
  
Maybe Dean wasn’t _completely_ exhausted after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Archiving fic from my lj days.


End file.
